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No Secret Plan at Google?
daltonlp writes "A number of smart folks have speculated that Google might leverage its computational resources to create some kind of massive online application delivery platform. Here's why they are probably wrong." One of more intelligent insights into Google, and it's pleasantly devoid of theories of Google taking over the world.
They didn't hire Rob and Marc to work on giving you online spreadsheets.
If they did this or an OS, which they wont as the article says wouldn't it cost them and the used massave amounts of bandwidth?
Failures (and business declines) often happen in big chunks: Lawsuit settlement of tens of millions of dollars. Major market shift away from your technology.
This is just smart business. Google will continue to move and enhance and grow in manageable increments. If they try to take over the world, it will be suicidal.
Anyone remember the dot-bomb era? The survivors are those that performed managed growth and bit off pieces that could be chewed. The failures tried to take over the world, and translate eyeballs into unrealistic company valuations. Works for a while, then you get an unemployment check....
designing a viable alternative to the OSes that we have today.
Two words for you: driver support.
OK, I know this is all alleged, so this is all moot, but wasn't the idea behind a Google OS that it would be a hosted OS? In other words we access it remotely, and Google decide on the hardware? Why would a hosted OS need driver support (I'm assuming that Google already have drivers to support the hardware they currently have, etc)?
This is where the serious fun begins.
Gumstix
With platforms like THIS, what you're thinking can't be too far off. A keychain computer. Wouldn't have to be too powerful, it'd just need a small, projectable display and a virtual keyboard.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
Geez why would they go the route of a costly infrastructure setup when they already have what they need?
I'll tell you what they're doing, they are using knowledge of what everyone around the whole world is searching for to tap into all kinds of consumer trend and demand opportunities. You know all those shoppers club cards that track your purchases, and credit cards which track all your spending habits? That data is awfully valuable. And Google has the best knowledge in the world. All they have to do is perfect the way the data is organized and packaged to marketing buyers.
For a quick glimpse of the possibilities, let's say you play the stock market. Wouldn't it be brilliant to know what potential investors are really interested in this week, what they have been researching online... well Google knows! I'll be they realize this, and are working on a way to capitalize on it.
Info about the timeline of this archive here and its composition here.
Anyways, comparing UI/feature set of Deja (well, before they sold out at least) to Google Groups (as it was) and to the new Google Groups Beta (which I don't like that much either) is a different topic. I'd choose the considerably improved relevance of Google Groups searches (phrase-search, anyone?), over Deja's wildcards anytime.